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August 20, 2004

The Daisy Ad Has Nothing on the SwiftVets

It's not just that the charges themselves are devastating. It's the pitch-perfect craft of the ads as well.

Thanks to Jennifer, apparently some sort of lesser-known deity.

Panicking Liberals Alert! Mickey Kaus has successfully predicted eleven of the past two liberal Kerry-Panics, but now we may be seeing the first Big Serious Liberal Panic.

Michelle Malkin was ambushed by a wildly-dishonest Chris Matthews. Drudge has linked her blog post on it, and so her site's overloaded, but you can at least read the liberal-thug take on the interview by unfunny, untalented kneejerk liberal cocksucker Keith "If I Say It In a Deep, Booming Radio Voice, It Must Be Witty" Olbermann and fellow MSNBC sweetboy Chris Matthews crowing about their television "triumphs."

Michelle stated, correctly, that the SwiftVets allege that two of John Kerry's very-superficial "wounds" were self-inflicted -- meaning shrapnel from their own ordnance, used in non-combat situations. Chrissy Matthews deliberately distorted this allegation into the straw-man charge that John Kerry deliberately shot himself, and then had a big, witty chuckle over that.

They're panicking, Big Time, as the man says, and they're descending into outright thuggery and demogoguery. They know how crucial the War Hero Myth is to John Kerry, and they strongly suspect that myth cannot stand up to close scrutiny, so they're desperately trying to choke off all discussion on the subject before such scrutiny can occur.

The non-media wing of the Democratic Party, meanwhile, has "angst" over these allegations.

They ought to.

They really, really ought to.

Pictorial Update: This is it!!!

Update: The Unpopulist reports Hugh Hewitt's Questions for Kerry. Well, somebody in the media needs to ask them, right?

posted by Ace at 12:34 PM

Comments

Unf@ckinbelievable!
Why the hell hasn't Bush run this sort of stuff?
Ok, Kerry can fudge the combat records, how's he gonna nuance himself outta his own words this time?

Posted by: Iblis on August 20, 2004 12:49 PM

I sure wish they would bring up his attendance at the VVAW meeting in which they discussed and voted on whether to assasinate US Senators. Not only did Kerry participate(information indicates he voted No)he has tried to coverup this participation.

Posted by: dman on August 20, 2004 01:01 PM

Not only is it a great ad in its own right, it gives the President his new talking point ready-made: "Mr. Kerry, I will repudiate the Swift Boat Veterans ads just as soon as you repudiate what you said to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."

Posted by: Paul Zrimsek on August 20, 2004 01:03 PM

Iblis,

Bush CAN'T run this sort of stuff. I guarantee you that if he did, the Times and every other goddamn paper that has been ignoring this story would run 6" high headlines like:

"COWARDLY DRAFT-DODGER BUSH ATTACKS DECORATED WAR HERO KERRY'S SERVICE RECORD"

Accompanying photos would show Bush looking stupid and mean, Kerry looking noble and aggrieved. Interior photos wuld include closeups of Kerry's scar (or perhaps an x-ray with shrapnel fragments highlighted) along with an "artists reconstruction" of a table scattered with empty beer cans, and an curiously scratched and "dusty" mirror.

Bush is smart to leave it to the vets. The press can't do much to smear them without looking like assholes themselves.

Posted by: DTLV on August 20, 2004 01:08 PM

Michelle Malkin's blog post re: her appearance on Hardball last night made it onto Drudge. The dam is leaking, and is about to break.

Posted by: Trevor on August 20, 2004 01:19 PM

I had been wondering for a while when someone would run an ad directly showcasing Kerry's "national debute". Pulling on my Nostradamus hat, I predict this ad will cause the Kerry campaign crew to suffer a shit hemmorage when it airs.

Personally I would have used footage of the young Kerry actually speaking those excerpts, but it is a minor quibble.

Posted by: Alex on August 20, 2004 01:25 PM

One thing to remember. . . Bush isn't really letting the Swift Vets do his dirty work, like Kerry says. What he's doing instead is focusing on, oh, the war we're currently in.

The best thing about the Swift Vets is, whether their charges are true or not, they keep Kerry and his camp focused on arguments over a 30 YEAR OLD WAR. While I'm certainly the first in line to argue about how important understanding *real* history is to events today (see "Hanson, Victor Davis, Collected Works of"), to the average voter, this meme could grow in effectiveness. I could see a lot of people wondering just why the heck should they pay attention to the candidate who keeps talking about the past, instead of the candidate who talks about the future.

Then again, none of this matters. It all comes down to the debates. Bush has to look serious, and competent enough, and he'll win again. He just needs to rope Kerry into being as arrogant as he wants to be, which I feel can't be too difficult.

Cheers,
Dave
Arlington, Virginia

Posted by: Dave on August 20, 2004 01:29 PM

Paul,
Yeah I know he can't run that stuff. It just seems like every media outlet including smoke signals has been used to trash Bush, its fianlly satisfying to see some solid hits scored on Kerry.

Posted by: Iblis on August 20, 2004 02:17 PM

Unfortunately, I think Mathews buffaloed Michelle into saying Kerry may have shot himself on purpose. I don't think that was her intent but she didn't really clarify her meaning....

MATTHEWS: No. No one has every accused him of shooting himself on purpose.

MALKIN: Yes. Some of them say that.

MATTHEWS: Tell me where that...

MALKIN: Self-inflicted wounds—in February, 1969

Posted by: Golden Boy on August 20, 2004 02:48 PM

I have been saying, since the very first moment this came out, that it was going to get bloody.

I've watched the second Swift Vets ad four times this morning, and every single time I choke up. This is even more devastating than the first ad.

Keep hacking at Kerry. He is the one who brought the whole matter of Vietnam up. He deserves this.

Posted by: Dianna on August 20, 2004 02:57 PM

Golden Boy: Exactly. I like Michelle as much as the next right winger, but she clearly slipped there.
As for the ad, two words: HOLY SHIT.

Posted by: madne0 on August 20, 2004 08:21 PM

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Funniest thing I've read about the Virginia mess. Back when they were hustling the referendum through the assembly both Senators, Warner and Kaine, advised them to go slow and play by the rules. Louise Lucas said she respected them but didn't need advice from the "cuck chair" in the corner. The gerrymandering was overturned and Louise is heading for the big house. Edward G. Robinson voice "where's your cuck now?"
Posted by: Smell the Glove

I posted his post on twitter and it's gotten 25K views so far. Thanks, Smell the Glove

Chris
@chriswithans

"Ahhhhh ahh I put my career on the line for Louise Lucas and Jay Jones thinking they'd vault me into presidential contention and we ended up costing Democrats 20 House seats and unleashing a Reverse Dobbs ahhhhh ahhh"

Forgotten 80s Mystery Click That Sums Up the Democrat Communist Party Today
Something is wrong as I hold you near
Somebody else holds your heart, yeah
You turn to me with your icy tears
And then it's raining, feels like it's raining

TJM wonders about world building in stories, mostly The Hunger Games

"It's f**king f**ked."
-- reportedly a genuine comment offered by a "senior Labour source"
Correction: I wrote that Labour is losing 88% (now 87%) of the seats it is "defending." I think that's wrong. The right way to say it is the seats they are contesting -- that is, they don't necessarily already hold these seats, but they have put up a candidate to run for the seat. It's still very bad but not as bad as losing 87% of the seats they already held.

Basil the Great
@BasilTheGreat

🚨ED MILIBAND [a Minister in Starmer's government] SAYS KEIR STARMER WILL RESIGN AS PRIME MINISTER

He has reportedly reassured Labour MP's that Starmer will be resigning following the disastrous results tonight

It's over

"The end of the two party system in the UK" as first the Fake Conservatives and now Labour chooses political suicide rather than simply STOPPING THE INVASION
Incidentally, the only reason this didn't already happen in the US is because of the Very Bad Orange Man (who is right on 85% of all policy calls and extremely, existentially right on 15% of them)

No political party that is NOT also a doomsday religious cult would EVER choose a cataclysmic loss -- and possible extinction as a party -- to support a toxically unpopular favoritism of NON-CITIZEN ILLEGAL MIGRANTS over actual citizen voters.

Only a cult does this.

Now they've lost 84%.

Annunziata Rees-Mogg
@zatzi
If this continues Labour loses 2,148 seats tonight.

That is much worse than the worst case predictions I’ve seen.

Cataclysmic

Update: They've now lost 88% of the seats they're defending. As I mentioned earlier, I think I heard that London will not bail them out, as many of those Labour seats will probably flip to "Muslim Independent" or Green. Detroit's 5am vote will not save them.

Yup, Labour is losing 80% of its seats...

The British Patriot
@TheBritLad

🚨 BREAKING: Labour have lost 80% of all seats contested as of 2:25 AM.<
br> If this continues, Keir Starmer will be out of office next week.

Reform has surged and projected to pick up between 1700-2100 seats.

Wow, up to 1700-2100 seats. It's not incredible that this is happening. It's incredible that the Davos crowd is so absolutely determined to privilege Muslim "migrants" over the actual native population who elects them, no matter how loudly the natives scream that they want to be prioritized, that they will gladly self-extinguish as a party rather than simply representing the interests of their own voters. Astonishing.
Remember, when they call other people "cultists" -- they are the ones so imprisoned in their social reinforcement and discipline bubbles that they will choose political death rather than dare upset the Karen Enforcement Officers of their cult.
Update: Now they've lost 83% of the seats they were defending.

(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges

Reform are basically wiping Labour out in the North. It's not a defeat. It's not even a rout. Labour are simply ceasing to exist.

Nick Lowles
@lowles_nick

Tonight’s results are calamitous for Labour. Not just for Keir Starmer's leadership, but for the very future of the party

STARMERGEDDON: In early returns, Reform gains 135 seats, Labour loses 90, the Fake Conservatives lose 36 (and I didn't even know they could fall any further), the Lib Dems lose 4, and the Greens gain 6. Note that the only other party gaining seats is the Greens and they're only gaining a handful of seats.
Update: Reform now up 145, Labour down 98.
Labour projected to lose Wales -- where they've ruled for 27 years.
Fulton County Georgia just discovered 400 boxes of ballots for Labour
Update: REF +156, LAB -107, CON -45
Brutal: In four out of five council seats where Labour is defending, they've lost. 80%.
I'm sure it's not this simple, but Reform is straight taking Labour's and the "Conservatives'" seats. They've lost almost exactly what Reform gained. If understand this right (and warning, I probably don't), all of London's council seats are up for election, and Labour might lose hugely there, as their old voters abandon them for Reform, Muslim Indenpendents, and the Greens.
REF +190, LAB -134, CON -56.

Updates on the Labour collapse in council elections -- which wags are calling #Starmergeddon -- from Beege Welborne. There are about 5000 seats up for grabs, Labour is expected to lose 1,800, Reform will probably gain 1,580, up from... zero. So this would be more than that.
People claim that while Labour has adopted the Sharia Agenda to appeal to the million Muslims it allowed to migrate to the country, those voters are ditching Labour to vote for the Muslim Independent Party or the Greens. Delicious. This shadenfreude is going straight to my thighs.
Oh, and if Starmer loses about as badly as expected, Labour will toss him out of a window Braveheart style and replace him. He will announce he is resigning to spend more time with his Gay Ukrainian Male Prostitutes.

Media bias and senationalism are as old as, well, the media:

That was written by Denny O'Neill and illustrated by, get this, Frank Miller. Editor to the Stars Jim Shooter was in charge at the time.
I always thought the gag was original to the comic book, but in fact the "Threat or Menace" headline was a satirical joke about media bias and sensationalism for a long while. The Harvard Lampoon used it in a parody of Life magazine: "Flying Saucers: Threat or Menace?"

Hamas is Humiliating Trump's 'Board of Peace'
[Hat Tip: TC] [CBD]

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Podcast: Starting a new season, CBD and Sefton discuss their personal journeys to conservative principles, is Nick Shirley the beginning of a trend?, Iran trying to reignite the war, the Left attacks itself, even on "Best Guitarist" lists, and more!

TJM definitively ranks the films of Billy Wilder, like Some Like It Hot

TJM talks about Billy Wilder